Confessions of a shopaholic

A movie especially made for girls. A story about credit cards and successful brands: Prada, Gucci, Louboutins, Yves Saint Lauren, Jimmy Choo.

The movie opens with young Rebecca looking at beautiful shoes and talking about how there were two kinds of prices: real prices, which bought wonderful things, and her mothers prices, which bought things that would last forever. We see her receiving a very plain and sturdy pair of brown shoes and looking enviously at the other girls. We see her looking at older girls trying on dresses and jewelry, and not even needing money for these perfect things as they swipe credit cards. She wanted one of those. Now the adult Rebecca (Isla Fisher) is walking down the street, saying she dream she would one day have twelve.
Rebecca Bex Bloomwood is a writer for a gardening magazine with a closet full of clothes and accessories, and a lot of debt. She does not know the exact amount, but she is concerned to receive one bill for $900.
Rebecca just can’t resist shopping for what she never had, designer clothes, accessories and the like. Yet, her salary does not even begin to cover her expenditures and she winds up with a $16,000 credit card bill!

A wonderful way to spend a couple of hours…

Good bye Natasha Richardson

Broadway dimmed its lights Thursday night to honor actress Natasha Richardson, who died after suffering a brain injury while skiing at a Canadian resort.

Richardson, a film star, Tony-winning stage actress and member of the legendary Redgrave acting family, died in a New York hospital after she fell down a ski slope Monday in Quebec.

Her husband, actor Liam Neeson; mother, Vanessa Redgrave; and sister, Joely Richardson, were present as theaters dimmed their marquees.

Mourners tearfully embraced in the dark as the lights went off for one minute at 8 p.m.

Actors Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick and Mark Ruffalo were among the many Broadway luminaries to reach up to hug Neeson.

London’s West End theaters will pay tribute to Richardson by dimming their lights for two minutes just before their shows begin Friday night.

Richardson comes from a renowned British acting family. Her mother is an Oscar-winning actress, and her father, the late Tony Richardson, directed films such as “Look Back in Anger” and the Oscar-winning “Tom Jones.” Her grandfather was Sir Michael Redgrave, and Lynn Redgrave is her aunt.

Richardson won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of “Cabaret” and earned rave reviews for her role as Blanche DuBois in a 2005 production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Celebrities remembered Richardson as warm and talented.

“Natasha was a great actress, a fantastic mother, a loving wife and a whirlwind of energy, with an infectious love of life,” actress Helen Mirren said in a statement. “I hope that Liam and her sons are helped in their pain by the great love and sympathy that is coming to them.”

Richardson and Neeson have two children, Michael, 13, and Daniel,12.

Actress Meryl Streep described Richardson as the “sun in the center of a large constellation of family,” adding that “her legacy is the love that connects us all.”

Natasha Richardson was talking and joking after she fell Monday during a beginner ski lesson, according to officials at the Canadian resort where she was staying. But soon after she returned to her room she complained of head pain and was taken to a nearby hospital, then to a larger medical center in Montreal. She was flown by private jet Tuesday to a New York hospital. She died Wednesday.

It’s very common for someone who’s had a fall or been in a car accident to appear perfectly lucid just after the impact but then to suddenly, rapidly deteriorate.
A patient can appear so deceivingly normal at first. “But they actually have a brain bleed and as the pressure builds up, they’ll experience classic symptoms of a traumatic brain injury.”

Such injuries are known as epidural hemorrhage. Blood gets trapped between the skull and the hard layer of skin between the bone and brain, known as the dura mater. As the blood flows from the ruptured artery, the fluid builds and punctures the dura.

Patients are often unaware they’ve fractured their skull. In these cases, the fracture generally occurs just above the ear, in the temporal bone. “There is an artery that runs above the skull and can get torn and begin to bleed above the lining of the brain.”

“At that point all the pressure is pushed on the brain, causing it to swell but there is often no room for it to move inside the skull cavity. And as the pressure continues, it reduces blood flow to the brain and a patient would begin to feel the symptoms.”

The condition is commonly referred to as “talk and die” syndrome among neuroscience physicians and surgeons, because the patient can decline so rapidly.

The initial fall or injury doesn’t have to be hard at all. The delay in symptoms can range from five minutes to three hours after the accident.

If an individual isn’t medically evaluated after a car accident, sports injury, or just a slip in the driveway, recognizing the signs brain injury early is critical. Nausea, severe headache, glossy eyes, sudden sleepiness, are all common symptoms. Getting to a hospital within the first few hours is critical to prevent permanent brain damage. An emergency craniotomy — opening of the skull — surgery is often needed to stop the bleeding and control brain swelling.

Immediate treatment is essential after a brain injury because the initial damage caused by swelling often is irreversible.

Once surgeons stop a brain bleed, the next step is to monitor brain activity and check for permanent damage. A patient typically spends up to a month in a neuro-ICU. Patients who survive often spend the next several years in physical and cognitive therapy to regain function.

San José

La madre de Jesús estaba desposada con José, y antes de vivir juntos, resultó que ella esperaba un hijo, por obra del Espíritu Santo. José, su esposo, que era bueno y no quería denunciarla, decidió repudiarla en secreto. Pero apenas había tomado esta resolución, se le apareció en sueños un ángel del Señor que le dijo: “José, hijo de David, no tengas reparo en llevarte a María, tu mujer, porque la criatura que hay en ella viene del Espíritu Santo. Dará a luz un hijo y tú le pondrás por nombre Jesús, porque él salvará a su pueblo de los pecados. (…) Cuando José se despertó, hizo lo que había mandado el ángel del Señor, y se llevó a casa a su mujer. Y sin que él hubiera tenido relación con ella, dio a luz un hijo; y él le puso por nombre Jesús”.(Evangelio de Mateo 1,18-25)

Tal y como narran los evangelios, a José lo recordamos como descendiente del linaje de David (Mt 1,20 y Mt 13,55), la estirpe humana de la que nació Jesús. Pero por encima de todo lo tenemos en el recuerdo por su fe, por su fidelidad y por el deseo de querer seguir los deseos de Dios por muy difíciles e increíbles que parecieran.
Cabe decir, que según las leyes de aquella época, si una mujer quedaba embarazada de otra persona que no era su novio, podía morir apedreada si éste la denunciaba. José se convierte en un hombre justo y fiel a Dios, preguntándose qué era lo mejor para María.

Tras asumir la paternidad de Jesús con todas sus consecuencias, enseguida se encuentra frente a otra decisión, igualmente difícil: marcharse de Belén para salvar a Jesús ante la ira de Herodes que ordena matar a todos los niños cuando él cree que el niño que ha nacido (Jesús) le va a tomar el trono. El Evangelio de Mateo lo narra así:

“Tan pronto como los magos se marcharon, un ángel del Señor se apareció en sueños a José y le dijo: “Levántate, toma al niño y a su madre, huye a Egipto y estate allí hasta que yo te avise, porque Herodes va a buscar al niño para matarlo” (Mt 2,13)

Y efectivamente, la Sagrada Familia emprendió camino a Egipto. Incluso, hay en El Cairo, un barrio muy bonito, el barrio copto, en el cuál, según la tradición copta, pasaron allí unos años José, María y Jesús. Muchos historiados de la Biblia creen que la Sagrada Familia nunca llegó a Egipto y que lo que hicieron fue huir “camino de Egipto”.

Una vez fallecido Herodes, un ángel del Señor se apareció de nuevo a José y le invitó a regresar a su Tierra, más concretamente en Nazaret para iniciar allí la historia de su hijo, la del Hijo de Dios. A partir de entonces, José sale muy poco en los evangelios, el caso más flamante es el de la peregrinación a Jerusalén, donde va acompañado de su esposa y de Jesús. En aquellos momentos, Jesús solo tenía 12 años. Sus padres solían ir cada año a Jerusalén por las fiestas de Pascua. Es aquél conocido relato en el que Jesús se queda en el templo de Jerusalén a discutir con los doctores de la ley.

”

¿Cuándo murió José? La última aparición de José en los evangelios es ésta, o sea, en la que Jesús tiene 12 años. Según Josep Lligadas en el libro “San José, el Creyente” editado por el Centro de Pastoral Litúrgica de Barcelona, José habría muerto antes del relato evangélico de la bodas de Caná, ya que en dicho fragmento no se menciona a José y si en cambio a María. Sería lógico que si María y Jesús estaban invitados a una boda, José también estuviera con ellos, pero el evangelista no lo menciona, de allí dicha suposición. Lo más probable, por tanto, es que José muriese antes de que Jesús abandonase Nazaret para iniciar su predicación.

Pero… también hay otros historiadores de la Biblia que creen que José habría muerto dada su anciana edad. La edad de José es un tema muy discutido, hay unos que creen que era joven y otros que creen que ya tenía sus añitos. Estos últimos se basan en los llamados “Evangelios Apócrifos”, textos no reconocidos como oficiales por la Iglesia Católica.
Según el evangelio apócrifo titulado “Historia de José el Carpintero”, José habría muerto a la edad de 111 años!, incluso nos dice la fecha, el 20 de julio.

En el mismo evangelio apócrifo “Historia de José el carpintero” se nos dice que José, antes de casarse con María, era un hombre viudo y que ya tenía cuatro varones y dos hembras: Judas, Josetos, Santiago, Simón, Lisia y Lidia. También nos cuenta que “era un varón justo y alababa a Dios en todas sus obras. Acostumbraba a salir forastero con frecuencia para ejercer el oficio de carpintero en compañía de sus dos hijos, ya que vivía del trabajo de sus manos”.

María, según el apócrifo, era una muchacha que vivía en el Templo de Jerusalén sirviendo a Dios en toda santidad, y con doce años de edad. Había pasado sus tres primeros años en la casa de sus padres, y los nueve restantes en el templo. Pero al acercarse la edad de la menstruación, no podía quedarse allí porque según las leyes de entonces, provocaría la impureza del recinto sagrado. Es por este motivo que los sacerdotes del templo decidieron convocar a la tribu de Judá y tomaron de ella a doce familias (12 hombres) para buscar a un varón y desposarlo con ella. La suerte recayó sobre José, a quién la “Historia de José el carpintero” lo define como “el buen viejo José”.

Según el apócrifo, María tenía 15 años de edad cuando dio a luz a Jesús, mientras que José tenía 92. Una vez más estos datos son del evangelio apócrifo “Historia de José el carpintero”, texto no reconocido como “oficial” por la Iglesia Católica.

Se cuenta que mientras José estaba en el templo junto a los otros jefes de las 12 familias para encontrar esposo a María en profunda oración, su vara (bastón) seca que sostenía entre sus manos floreció y al mismo tiempo una paloma blanca descendió sobre su cabeza. Este acto, simboliza el deseo de Dios en que José fuera el esposo de María.

¿Por qué a los José se les llama también Pepe?
Esta es una curiosidad muy divertida y como todo tiene su explicación. José no es el padre biológico de Jesús, es un padre putativo (que se tiene por padre pero sin serlo). Las iniciales de Padre Putativo son PP. Las iniciales PP se hicieron muy famosas, ya que figuraron en las imágenes del santo e incluso, muchas veces, cuando se leía un fragmento del evangelio o de algún teólogo en el cual salía el nombre de José, se añadía acontinuación las iniciales PP.

San José es por excelencia el patrón de los carpinteros, ya que ejerció esta profesión según nos narra el Evangelio de Mateo (Mt 13,54-55) y por extensión, lo es también de todas aquellas personas que trabajan en oficios manuales. Los ingenieros técnicos industriales también le piden protección.
Así mismo, el Papa Pío IX lo declaró en 1870, patrón de la Iglesia Católica universal. También es el patrón de los seminarios católicos, de ahí que la Iglesia Católica celebre el domingo después a esta festividad el “Día del Seminario”. Este patronazgo es fácil de entender, ya que como padre, educó a su hijo Jesús en Nazaret y le preparó durante muchos años para su ministerio. ¿Quien mejor que San José para que proteja a los que serán futuros sacerdotes?
En 1955 otro Papa, en este caso Pío XII, instituyó la fiesta de San José Obrero el día primero de mayo para cristianizar la Fiesta del Trabajo que había nacido en 1889. Es por tanto, el patrón de todos los trabajadores.

La devoción popular ha creído que José murió en brazos de Jesús y de María, sin duda falleció en buena compañía. Es por este motivo que se le pide auxilio para tener una buena muerte.
Se le otorga la protección de los padres de familia y de las personas indecisas. Diferentes comunidades religiosas se amparan en él y países como Bélgica, Canadá o Perú lo tienen como protector.

Y no cabe olvidar que el 19 de marzo es también el día del padre, una festividad en honor a nuestros padres, como padre fue José de Jesús.

Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Williams made history on September 17, 1983 when she became the first woman of African descent to be crowned Miss America. Williams’ reign as Miss America came to an abrupt end when a nude and gay photo scandal led to her subsequent resignation of the title. Williams rebounded by launching a career as an entertainer, earning Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award nominations.

http://www.vanessawilliams.com

Saint Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity’s most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling.

It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. Although his father was a Christian deacon, it has been suggested that he probably took on the role because of tax incentives and there is no evidence that Patrick came from a particularly religious family. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family’s estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. (There is some dispute over where this captivity took place. Although many believe he was taken to live in Mount Slemish in County Antrim, it is more likely that he was held in County Mayo near Killala.) During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.)

After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, a voice-which he believed to be God’s-spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland.

To do so, Patrick walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation-an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Soon after, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than fifteen years. After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission-to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. (Interestingly, this mission contradicts the widely held notion that Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland.)

According to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish.

Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish. (Although there were a small number of Christians on the island when Patrick arrived, most Irish practiced a nature-based pagan religion. The Irish culture centered around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. When this is considered, it is no surprise that the story of Patrick’s life became exaggerated over the centuries-spinning exciting tales to remember history has always been a part of the Irish way of life.)

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years.

On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers to reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

Over the next thirty-five years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called “Irish Aid” societies, like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.

In 1848, several New York Irish aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world ‘s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants.

Each year, nearly three million people line the one-and-a-half mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Savannah also celebrate the day with parades including between 10,000 to 20,000 participants.

Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country’s cities took to the streets on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.

In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland ‘s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows.

Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore, and Russia.

Chicago is also famous for a somewhat peculiar annual event: dyeing the Chicago River green. The tradition started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river—enough to keep it green for a week!

Today, in order to minimize environmental damage, only forty pounds of dye are used, making the river green for only several hours. Although Chicago historians claim their city ‘s idea for a river of green was original, some Savannah natives believe the idea originated in their town.

They point out that 1961, Savannah mayor Tom Woolley had plans for a green river, but due to rough water on March 17, the experiment didn’t work and Savannah never attempted to dye its river again.

Freida Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire to James Bond

Freida Pinto (born October 18, 1984) is an Indian actress and professional model, best known for her performance as Latika in her debut film Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2009. Pinto won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
She was born in Mumbai to Sylvia Pinto, a principal of St. John’s Universal High School (Goregaon), and Frederick Pinto, a senior branch manager at the Bank of Baroda. Freida Pinto’s father is from Neerude and mother from Derebail, both towns in Mangalore. Her elder sister Sharon Pinto is an associate producer on the NDTV news channel.

She is trained in different forms of Indian classical dance as well as Salsa.
Before starring in Slumdog Millionaire, Freida anchored the international travel show, Full Circle on Zee International Asia Pacific in English between 2006-08. Pinto was also featured in several television and print advertisements for products such as Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, Škoda, Vodafone India, Airtel, and DeBeers. She modeled for four years and appeared in runway shows and magazine covers, learned acting from The Barry John’s Acting Studio in Andheri and was trained by his mentor Barry John. After six months of auditions, she received a call to audition for Slumdog Millionaire. Pinto auditioned for Danny Boyle and was short-listed and finally selected to star in Slumdog Millionaire.

Pinto has been cast in Woody Allen’s next film set in London. Other cast members include Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, and Naomi Watts. Shooting for the film starts in July 2009.

The Mumbai-born beauty has reportedly been approached by Barbara Broccoli, producer of the James Bond films, to do a screen test opposite Daniel Craig. “Freida came to the attention of the Bond team when they were casting “Quantum of Solace” but she was too young at the time to have a part as a love interest for a secret agent,” says a source.

Braces

Today, orthodontic treatment is a viable option for almost any adult. It is well recognized that when left untreated, many orthodontic problems may become worse. When you have a malocclusion (“bad bite”), your teeth may be crowded, excessively spaced or may not fit together correctly. Such conditions may lead to dental health problems. Crowded teeth are hard to clean and, given time, may contribute to tooth decay, gum disease and even tooth loss. Bad bites can also result in abnormal wearing of tooth surfaces, difficulty chewing and damage to supporting bone and gum tissue. Poorly aligned teeth can contribute to pain in the jaw joints.

I am wearing braces on three of my teeth. And I am 30.
Yes, healthy teeth can be moved at any age. Many orthodontic problems can be corrected as easily for adults as for children. Orthodontic forces move the teeth in the same way for both adults and children, but adult treatment may take longer due to the maturity of the bone.

After 5 months I am quite pleased with the result. My orthodontist say I should wear braces until October as she wants to apply constant pressure and now we are in a phase of reconstructing the bone and this takes time.

I am grateful that braces exist and are working on what used to be my problem. Now, I am half way through the treatment and the final result sure looks promising.

My friends from US got robbed

They are the owners of a gas station in West Palm Beach. The robber is their “loyal” employee whom I got to meet while on vacation in December 2007.
For three years he cashed $5 tickets but rang them up as $25 tickets and pocketed the difference. Investigators say he also stole tickets from his inventory and cashed winners at nearby stores.
According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s report, he told detectives he originally stole the money because he was short on cash, but continued when he realized he wasn’t being discovered.
Florida Lottery officials audited the Texaco station at Okeechobee Blvd. in January and found “several discrepancies,” between what the state paid out and what the station paid.
The station’s owner then did her own audit and found a difference of $50,415.40. The owner was able to trace the thefts to days when Daniel was the only worker on duty.
Daniel had worked at the station for 10 years, the last three under the current owner.

Friday, the 13th

If Friday the 13th is unlucky, then 2009 is an unusually unlucky year.
This week’s Friday the 13th is one of three to endure this year.
The first came last month. The next is in November. Such a rare triple-threat occurs only once every 11 years.

The origin of the link between bad luck and Friday the 13th is murky. The whole thing might date to Biblical times (the 13th guest at the Last Supper betrayed Jesus). By the Middle Ages, both Friday and 13 were considered bearers of bad fortune. In modern times, the superstition permeates society.

Here are five of our favorite Friday-the-13th facts:

1. Fear of Friday the 13th – one of the most popular myths in science – is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

2. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.

3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

4. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. “It was bad luck,” Twain later told the friend. “They only had food for 12.” Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number – 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

Pythagorean legacy

Meanwhile the belief that numbers are connected to life and physical things – called numerology – has a long history.

“You can trace it all the way from the followers of Pythagoras, whose maxim to describe the universe was ‘all is number,'” says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist and author of “The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved” (Simon & Schuster, 2005). Thinkers who studied under the famous Greek mathematician combined numbers in different ways to explain everything around them, Livio said.

In modern times, numerology has become a type of para-science, much like the meaningless predictions of astrology, scientists say.

“People are subconsciously drawn towards specific numbers because they know that they need the experiences, attributes or lessons associated with them, that are contained within their potential,” says professional numerologist Sonia Ducie. “Numerology can ‘make sense’ of an individual’s life (health, career, relationships, situations and issues) by recognizing which number cycle they are in, and by giving them clarity.”

However, mathematicians dismiss numerology, saying it lacks any scientific merit.

“I don’t endorse this at all,” Livio said, when asked to comment on the popularity of commercial numerology. Seemingly coincidental connections between numbers will always appear if you look hard enough, he said.

Forbes Billionaires List

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates’ net worth dived to $40 billion from $58 billion a year earlier.

Despite that decline he reclaimed the title of world’s richest man, because two other billionaires lost more, on paper, than Gates did.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren E. Buffett, who was No. 1 on last year’s list, sank to No. 2 as his net worth plunged to $37 billion from $62 billion.

And Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu fell to No. 3, with wealth of $35 billion, down from $60 billion.

Overall, the number of billionaires fell to 793 from 1,125 a year ago, Forbes said. Their collective net worth: $2.4 trillion, a drop of $2 trillion.

After Gates, Buffett and Slim, here’s how the list of the 10 richest people rounds out (name, source of wealth, and 2008 net worth):

No. 4: Lawrence Ellison, U.S. software giant Oracle Corp., $22.5 billion.

No. 5: Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish retailer IKEA, $22 billion.

No. 6: Karl Albrecht, German supermarket giant Aldi, $21.5 billion.

No. 7: Mukesh Ambani, Indian petrochemicals, $19.5 billion.

No. 8: Lakshmi Mittal, Indian steel, $19.3 billion.

No. 9: Theo Albrecht, German supermarket giant Aldi and the Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s grocery chain, $18.8 billion.

No. 10: Amancio Ortega, Spanish retailing, $18.3 billion.